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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[OCTOBER, 1916
tures of the Ardhamantapa, which both in theme and in nature are just like those of Tinnevelly and Krishnapuram, and the pillar works, of the hall leading to the bed-chamber of the deities; the spacious gallery around the central shrine, which is just after the model of the celebrated Subramanya shrine of the Tanjore pagoda ; and above all, the golden tower in front of it, to which the god and G3da resort every Friday, with its golden statues of Tirumal and his queens; all these seem to show this temple to have been a favourite of Tirumal Naik. It is not improbable that the small and neglected Krishna temple in the south-western corner of the town was prosperous in the time of Tirumal. Now-a-days it nas fallen into ruin. The tower is incomplete, its tank ruined, its sculptures mutilated and the street around it practically deserted. The numerous tanks of Srivilliputtûr were moreover repaired, and the beautiful Tiruma-Kulam in the north western corner of the city, a fine sheet of water which is on account of the soil yellowish in colour, with its mantapa on its north bank and its stone rivettings on all sides, will always be a monument of the great king's generosity and benevolence. In addition to these works Tirumal Naik constructed a number of mantapams from Srivilli; uttûr to Madura at intervals of a mile, so that he might, during his stay at Madura, go to his food only after receiving the information of the offerings to the Srivilliputtûr gods, through the drummers stationed in these bowers.
Another example of Naik architecture belonging to the same period, is that of the Rimêśvaram shrine.99 If Fergusson were asked to select one temple "which should exhibit all the beauties of the Dravidian style in their greatest perfection and at the same time exemplify all the characteristic defects of its designs," he would single out Râmêśvaram. on no temple perheps, has such extraordinary labour been bestowed, but on none has it been so nieffective. The want of design strikes the casual observer and ignores the skill of its makers. Curiously enough, the temple was constructed, like the sanctuary of Tanjore, after a rotiled plan, but the plan of one is exactly the opposite of the other. In one there is a minimum of labour, with a maximum of beauty, while in the other the maximum of labour with the minimum of beauty. The result is that, in spite of its double size and its tenfold elaboration, the Rûmêsvaram shrine fails in comparison with its rival.
The earliest part of the shrine, ascribed by Mr. Fergusson to the 11th or 12th century, is the small, elegant and well-proportioned vimana, standing to the right of the visitor entering from the west. Long exposure to the vicissitudes of seasons has corroded its details, and makes a definite pronouncement in regard to its date difficult. But it may be conceded with Mr. Fergusson that it is posterior to the era of rock-cut temples, and prior to the era of the Näiks, and therefore a work probably of the 11th or 12th centuries. It is, after all, a small unpretentious portion of the temple, being but 50 feet in height and 30 or 40 feet in plan ; but it is singularly important in the religious history of the island, for the four walls on the platform under its dome narrate a tale of woe and the vicissitudes of religion, the former grandeur and the present fall of Saiviism.
The whole temple, of which the abovementioned vimana is a tiny part, is enclosed by & wall rising to a height of twenty feet, interrupted on each side by a gopura. All the four gopuras are singular in respect of the material of their construction. Unlike their peers of South India, they are completely built of stone, the hardness of which is a certain
* See Ferguson pp. 355—9 and Journal of Geographical Society, Bombay, Vol. VII., Christian College Magazine, Vol. VII, p. 49; Handbook Arch. I, p. 98.; Madras, Arch. Rep., 1910-11, p. 52-4; Burgess and Natesan Sastri's Tamil and Sanskt, Insons, p. 56.7.
